1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical unit, a backlight assembly having the optical unit and a display device having the optical unit. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical unit capable of condensing and diffusing light, a backlight assembly having the optical unit and a display device having the optical unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a backlight assembly of a display device is classified as either an edge illumination type backlight assembly or a direct illumination type backlight assembly.
The edge illumination type backlight assembly includes a light guiding plate and a lamp disposed at a side of the light guiding plate. The edge illumination type backlight assembly is usually employed in a display device having a relatively small display size. The edge illumination type backlight assembly has many merits, such as good optical uniformity, long lifetime, small size, etc.
The direct illumination type backlight assembly has been developed as the size of liquid crystal display (LCD) devices has increased over time. The direct illumination type backlight assembly includes a plurality of lamps disposed under a light-diffusing plate and arranged substantially parallel to each other. The direct illumination type backlight assembly includes more lamps than the edge illumination type backlight assembly, and thus has a relatively high luminance.
However, in a direct illumination type backlight assembly, the lamp configuration may be detected through the light-diffusing plate. Therefore, the display quality of a display device employing a direct illumination type backlight assembly may be lower than the display quality of a display device employing an edge illumination type backlight assembly.